Ingot descaling mechanisms



March 6, 1962 R. v. PROCTOR INGOT DESCALING MECHANISMS Filed Oct. 5, 1959 INVENTOR Roberi V.Procior a /7% United States Patent 3,023,756 INGOT DESCALING MECHANISMS Robert V. Proctor, Boardman Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, assignor to The Commercial Shearing and Stamping Company, a corporation of Ohio Filed Oct. 5, 1959, Ser. No. 844,526 6 Claims. (Cl. 134-57) The present invention relates to ingot descaling mechanisms and particularly to a device for removing scale from an ingot prior to the first reduction.

It is the general practice in the iron and steel industry to pour steel into ingot molds. After the ingot has solidified, it is stripped from the mold and placed in a soaking pit for several hours to stabilize the temperature in the ingot and bring it to a satisfactory rolling or forming temperature. This soaking operation usually takes a period of several hours and a coating of scale forms on the surface of the ingot which is of variable but considerable thickness. The scale formed in the soaking pit is usually not less than di in thickness and may exceed /2" in thickness. When the ingot is removed from the soaking pit, it is deposited on an ingot buggy or on a conveyor system which will carry it to the mill where it is to be reduced. It is a usual practice to place the ingot with the broad side of the ingot parallel to the edge of the conveyor table with the ingot on edge and the broad sides of the ingot parallel to the edge of the conveyor. Mills in which this practice is followed are generally called high lift mills. They are reversing mills and the ingot is given several passes on edge to eliminate the taper on the ingot and break up the loose scale on the broad vertical surfaces of the ingot. After this preliminary breakdown, the ingot is generally rolled over onto its flat face and reduction into a slab is then completed. Any scale which is left on the broad surfaces of the ingot when the ingot is rolled over onto its flat side is rolled into the relatively softer metal during the subsequent reduction of the ingot into a slab. In order to remove the scale which is rolled into the surface of the slab, the slab is scarfed, either automatically or manually. In the case of automatic scarfing, the entire surfaces of the slab are burned away to a given depth. However, even this practice does not remove all of the rolled in scale. In manual scarfing, the slabs are permitted to cool and then the rolled in scale is burned out individually piece by piece. This is expensive both in time and in loss of heat.

I have invented a descaling mechanism which eliminates the need for automatic or manual scarfing and which effectively removes the scale from an ingot immediately preceding the rolling operation.

According to my invention, I provide in a preferred embodiment, conveyor means for carrying an ingot to be descaled, gate means pivoted at the side of the conveyor means for extending to a point intermediate the edges of the conveyor means in the path of a moving ingot, jet means on the gate means on the end remote from the pivot adapted to move with the gate means, and means introducing high pressure water to the jet means whereby to direct a stream of water through the jet means over the conveyor. Preferably, sensing means are provided adjacent the conveyor activated by the end of the moving ingot to introduce water into the jet means and second sensing means are spaced from the first sensing means stopping the flow of water as the ingot passes the jet. Link means are preferably fixed to a point adjacent the pivot means connected with the jet means whereby the angle of the jet means may be varied as the position of the gate varies. Preferably, a pair of gate means are hinged on opposite sides of the conveyor to extend inwardly to a point adjacent the center line of the conveyor ice whereby an ingot passing on the conveyor must necessarily touch said gates to open the gates. Preferably, the jet bars are attached to the free ends of the gates and are directed in the direction of travel of the ingot, however, the direction of the jet may be opposite the direction of travel or at right angles to the direction of travel as may be desired.

In the foregoing general description, certain objects, purposes and advantages of my invention are set out. Other objects, purposes and advantages will be apparent from a consideration of the following description and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a partial top plan view of a preferred form of descaling mechanism according to my invention taken on line I-I of FIG. 2; and

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of a descaling mechanism according to my invention.

Referring to the drawings, I have illustrated a conveyor 10 for carrying an ingot 11. Guides 12 are placed alongside the conveyor 10 in usual manner. A jet door or gate 13 is provided with a hub 14a fixed on a hollow spindle 14 positioned alongside each of the guides 12 to move in planes transverse to the surface of the conveyor so that the jet door 13 is adapted to swing over the conveyor in the path of the ingot 11 moving in the direction of the arrow. The hollow spindle 14 is suspended from a thrust bearing 15a on spindle housing 15 mounted on a catwalk 16 normally passing over conveyor 10 ahead of the roll stands. Any other well known manner of suspending or mounting the spindle 14 alongside conveyor 10 could be satisfactorily used. An air cylinder 17 is connected at one end to a bell crank arm 18 on the spindle housing support 15b and at the other end to an arm 180 on the spindle 14a to urge the jet door 13 to a position over conveyor 10. A jet bar holder 19 is fixed to a link 20 pivoted on a shaft 21 on the end 22 of the jet door 13 remote from the spindle 14. The opposite end of link 20 is mounted on a pin 23 which is connected to a link 24 pivoted on a pin 25 in a bracket 25a which is fixed to support 15b. Jet bars 26 are mounted in the jet bar arm 19 and are connected to a source of water under pressure by means of hoses 27 and solenoid valves not shown. Preferably, the jet bars 26 are those shown and claimed in application Serial No. 625,305 of Thomas C. Kane (deceased) filed November 30, 1956, now Patent No. 2,921,748. This linkage arrangement forms a variable parallelogram which permits the jet bars 26 to shift with the relative position of the door 13 with respect to ingot 11 so that the spray of water issuing from the jet bar to the ingot is directed at generally the same angle at all times for proper descaling. The jet bar may, however, be fixed to the jet bar holder or the door 13 without the use of link 20 in which case the angle of the stream changes with the movement of the door. The solenoid valve (not shown) which delivers water to hoses 27 for the jet bars is opened by means of an electric eye 28 mounted on an arm 29 extending from the catwalk above and centrally of the conveyor 10. Electric eye 28 is mounted ahead of the jet doors 13 to open the solenoid valve just before ingot 11 opens jet doors 13. A second electric eye 30 is mounted on arm 29 just beyond the ends of jet doors 13 so as to hold the solenoid valve open after ingot 11 passes electric eye 28 and until the end of the ingot is free of the jet doors 13.

The hollow spindle 14 is water cooled by water entering through solenoid valve 31 and make up water line 32. The solenoid valve 31 is controlled by a water level switch 33 on the spindle 14.

It is obvious that the jet doors can be normally closed over the conveyor or alternatively they can be normally open and be closed by a solenoid valve operatedby electric eye 28 on an air line to the air cylinder 17.

The sensing eyes 28 and 30 may obviously be omitted and the valves operated manually if desired;

While I have illustrated and described a present preferred embodiment of my invention it will be understood that the invention may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. An ingot descaling mechanism comprising convey ing means for carrying an ingot to be descaled along a path, gate means pivoted atone side of the path for movement into the path of the moving ingot, jet means pivoted on the gate means at the end remote from the pivot point adapted to move with the gate means, link means fixed to a point adjacent the pivot means and connected with the jet means whereby the angle of the jet means with respect to the gate means may be varied as the position of the gate varies so that the angle of the jet to the path of travel remains substantially constant, a source of high pressure water connected to the jet means whereby to direct a stream of water through the jet means at anangle to the path of travel, sensing means adjacent the path activated by the forward end of a moving ingot to be descaled, valve means activated by the sensing means between the jet means and thesource of high pressure water introducing water into the jet means as the ingot reaches the gate means and second sensing means adjacent the path of travel spaced from the first sensing means and acting to hold the valve means open until the ingot passes the gate means, i

2. An ingot descaling mechanism comprising conveyreaches the doors and second sensing means adjacent the path of travel spaced from the first sensing means and acting to hold the valve means open until the ingot passes the doors.

3. An ingot descaling mechanism as claimed in claim 2 wherein fluid means acts on each door to urge the door into the path of a moving ingot.

4. An ingot descaling mechanism comprising conveyor means for carrying an ingot to be descaled along a path, gate means pivoted at one side of the path for movement into the path of the moving ingot, actuator means on said gate means normally holding the gate means out of the said path, jet means pivoted on the gate means ing means for carrying an ingot to be descaled along a path, a pair of doors pivoted one on each side of the path and extending into the path of the moving ingot, jet means pivoted on each of the doors at the end remote from the pivot point adapted to move with the doors, link means on each jet means fixed at one end to a point adjacent the pivot means and connected at the other end with the jet means whereby the angle of the jet means with respect to the gate on which it is pivoted may be varied as the position of the doors van'es so thatrthe angle of the jet to the path remains substantially constant, a source of high pressure water connected to the jet means whereby to direct a stream of water through the jet means at an angle to the path of travel, sensing means adjacent the path activated by the forward end of a moving ingot to be descaled, valve means activated by the sensing means at the end remote from the pivot point adapted to move with the gate means, link means fixed to a point adjacent the pivot means and connected with the jet means with respect to the gate means whereby the angle of the jet means may be varied as the position of the gate varies so that the angle of the jet to the path remains substantially constant, a source of high pressure water connected to the jet means whereby to direct a stream of water through the jet means transverse to the path of travel, sensing means adjacent the path activated by the forward end of a moving ingot to be descaled acting on the gate actuator means to move the gate means into the path of a moving ingot as it reaches said sensing means, valve means activated by the sensing means between the jet means and the source of high pressure water introducing water into the jet means simultaneously with movement of the gate means and second sensing means adjacent the path of travel spaced from the first sensing means and acting to hold the valve means open and the gate means in the path of travel until the ingot passes the gate means.

5. An ingot descaling mechanism as claimed in claim 4 wherein the actuator means is an air cylinder.

6. An ingot descaling mechanism as claimed in claim 4 wherein the jet means extends from a level above the highest point on an ingot to be passed through the descaler to the level of the conveyor means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,942,653 Kiggins Jan. 9, 1934 1,962,167 Zimmer June 12, 1934 2,132,303 Lathrop Oct. 4, 1938 2,289,967 Johnson July 14, 1942 2,347,781 Johnston May 2, 1944 2,544,007 Cook Mar. 6, 1951 

